Context Menus, Spell Checking, and Common Tasks

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 29, 2019)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


1

Some people are very mouse-dependent, while others are tied to the keyboard. Word, fortunately, accommodates both types of people. There are times, however, when you cannot work as much with the mouse as you may want to. One such time is when you right-click on words in a document. Normally, if you select a word and then right-click on it, you have the option of doing several common tasks, such as cutting, copying, pasting, or formatting.

All this changes, however, if you have automatic spell checking turned on and the highlighted word is misspelled. Word places a red wavy line under the misspelled word, and when you right-click you are presented with a totally different menu from the normal one. This menu is completely spelling-related, since Word assumes you want to correct the spelling of the word before you do anything else.

If you want, instead, to perform those common tasks (cutting, copying, pasting, etc.) via the Context menu, you are left out in the cold. You will need to either correct the spelling first or you will need to rely on regular menu choices or keyboard shortcuts to accomplish the desired task. (For instance, you would press Ctrl+X to cut the selected word.)

If you are a die-hard mouse user in this circumstance, you can of course modify the Context menu used for spelling, using the techniques detailed in a previous issue of WordTips.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1648) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Turning Off Hyphenation for Individual Words

Word does a semi-decent job when it comes to automatically hyphenating your documents. It even lets you exclude certain ...

Discover More

Counting Non-Blank Cells

Need to count the number of cells in a range that are not blank? You can use the COUNTA function of a more complex ...

Discover More

Changing the Start Screen's Theme

You'll spend a lot of time viewing the Start screen in Windows. If you want to change up things, you can modify which ...

Discover More

Do More in Less Time! An easy-to-understand guide to the more advanced features available in the Microsoft 365 version of Word. Enhance the quality of your documents and boost productivity in any field with this in-depth resource. Complete your Word-related tasks more efficiently as you unlock lesser-known tools and learn to quickly access the features you need. Check out Microsoft 365 Word For Professionals For Dummies today!

More WordTips (menu)

Only Showing Readability Statistics

Perform a grammar check, and Word displays some statistics that represent an analysis of your words. By writing a macro ...

Discover More

Replacing Two Tabs with a Space in Limited Situations

The Find and Replace feature of Word is very powerful, allowing you to finely target exactly what you want to search. ...

Discover More

Turning Off Spell Checking

For some documents, you may not want spell checking turned on. There are two ways that you can turn it off, depending on ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 5 - 3?

2019-06-30 12:07:24

S. SARAN

I have one hp laptop purchased in 2018. It frequently gives wrong suggestions, even when the spelling of the word is corrector or the grammar is correct.What to do with these false alarms?


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.